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Sunday, November 29, 2015

SO… the flight delay from Toronto had me stuck in Atlanta
overnight, which meant that I would not get home in time to drive back to
Atlanta for the race.My plan was to
land at midnight, and start driving at 2 am back towards Atlanta.The delay would make this impossible. . But…
if I could figure out a way to race with the stuff I happened to have with me,
I could get a later flight, rent a car for the day, and stick around in
Atlanta, which is what I did.Hey – it saved
me about 5 hours of driving, which was pretty awesome.The part of my race kit that I’d miss the
most was my OCR shoes (Reebok Spartan Super All-Terrains), but I’d do my best
in my Saucony Kinvara 4’s, which are not low-to-the-ground and don’t have a lot
of tread.With clothes, I wouldn’t have
my arm protectors, but I’d manage.Fortunately, I always have plenty of exercise clothes with me.Spartans are resourceful!It would be a crazy adventure trying to wing
this race.I would’ve hated to miss the
volunteering opportunity that I had that morning, as much as I’d miss the race.

I had a voucher from the airline to stay at a hotel, but
with a 1 hr drive to the race venue and a 5am volunteer start time, I’d only
have a couple of hours, anyway, and taking transit back and forth to/from the
hotel would be an unpredictable time sink, and I’d be getting a couple hours of
sleep, at most.Better just to drive to
the venue and catch a couple of hours in the back seat of my car.It was raining during the drive there… glad I
didn’t have to do this drive with the day’s racing traffic.Because the original parking spots were
supposed to be in the fields, and the rain made driving on the fields a mud pit
of impossibility, the race organizers found offsite parking locations and
arranged shuttle buses.I applaud their
quick thinking.

I took the bus to a shelter, where they signed in the
volunteers and gave out positions.I was
a course marshall for the “balance beam” logs on the wreck bag loop.During BFX earlier this year, the 50-lb wreck
bags were the most challenging obstacle for me, by far, and I had to do it
4x!I couldn’t imagine getting up on the
log, then maintaining a stable position while crossing the log with that thing
on my back.With all of the rain overnight
and through the first part of the morning, the area that I was manning was a
muddy mess.My toes would be soaked in
my shoes all day.

The elite racers started, and they should’ve arranged for
more than 3 logs, since a huge backlog (ha – log) developed, since this was
within the first half-mile or so of the race.Some were understandably frustrated.This kind of repeated with each wave through the morning.It’s always fun to volunteer at these races,
though.You see racers bravely push
themselves, and the ones who have to struggle through it are the most
inspiring.

(That's me in the background, in the orange vest)

At about noon, the shift was over, and it was time for me to
race.I got geared up, then went to the
start.I had officially registered (vs.
volunteer wave) for the 12:30 race, but there was no official 12:30 starting
sendoff!It was odd.I guess not enough people signed up for
it.A couple others were in the same
boat, and rather than waiting for the 1pm volunteer heat start (assuming there
was a real start), we decided to go ahead.I was especially eager to go ahead, to 1) maximize the time I had to get
back to the airport to fly home, and 2) to minimize traffic jams on the
obstacles.I struggled over the
pre-start wall (but made it J
), and our little band was off.

The wreck bags were first… tolerable this time, compared to
at BFX.I wonder if I’m stronger, or if
it’s the fact that I was only doing 1 lap, instead of 4.The balance beam was manageable.The wall was also doable, after some of the
usual struggling to get it back on me.I
had cheered some racers on, on the return trip to the wreck bag drop-off
previously, saying “almost there”.Being
¾ of the way myself, I could see how I was not “almost there”, and with the
second half having the bags get harder to carry, it was like someone saying “almost
there” to someone at the 20 mile point of the marathon, haha.Well, at least we had the end to look forward
to.

Next,12’ ladder
wall, jerry can (crushed it), 8’ wall fail, rope climb easy, spider web kind of
a joke, ramp wall fail especially because it was at the top of an uphill slope,
high knee cargo net, Normandy jacks, inverted wall, delta ladder, cargo bridge,
platinum rig (got 37% of the way through – tons of fun, even though I failed),
swim, tip fo the spear, over/under, mounds of grounds, 12’ rope wall fail,
river crossing, mud trench, 60 degree inverted ladder, platinum rig #2 (maybe
40% of the way through, with the coaching of a nice French-speaking volunteer
who I struggled to speak French with), ramp wall.I love the Battlefrog

obstacles (other than the sternum checker)!

There was a media guy from the OCR community who was there filming, and he caught me at the 60 degree ladder and the finish. He was really nice, and has great videos. I appear towards the end.

Showered off as best as I could, changed, then there was a
bit of time left for Geocaching!I was
about 5 miles from the Alabama border (I can’t imaging driving myself here all
the way from SC – I’m thankful for the flight delay!), so I found a quick cache
there, just to get the virtual geocaching.com souvenir for Alabama.I also found another cache, in Georgia, that
had lots of signature cards… like trading cards, where Geocachers have stats
about their geocaching adventures, with their picture.Pretty cool.Drove back to the airport, then flew home.A wild trip.

The official results, and only some of the pictures have
been posted so far, but it took me about 2 hours to finish the 5 miles.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Sunday, headed out to Canada.I did most of the stuff that I wanted to do
in downtown Toronto and Niagara Falls in previous trips, so this time, I
figured that I’d spend the travel day looking for good geocaches.Early in my caching life (although I’m still
a baby, at just 5 months), it was all about the numbers.Now, with 220+ finds, it’s about the ratings
(called “favorite points”, which are awarded by premium member geocachers).I’m also interested in finding unique kinds
of caches, like more Letterboxes (after finally getting my first last month),
and a true “Night Cache”, in which glowing or reflective marks are used to
direct hunters to the cache.I found
both on this trip!I like to find cool
SWAG and trackables to carry on to their next adventure, too.Check, and check.And I ended up finally stumbling across and
going after a First-to-Find (the race to first one to find a cache after it’s
initially placed/born/published on geocaching.com), on my last night in town.

Sunday, I first hit a Travel Bug Hotel next to a Hilton
Hotel, where I had uncovered a whole bunch of travel bugs on a previous
trip.I dropped off two there, knowing
that that airport location would be a prime spring board for future travels for
the two guys that I’ve been carrying.I
picked up one, too, which happened to be a beer bottle opener – awesome!Beer and geocaching, two of my hobbies,
having a baby.

Next, I went after a cache deep in a mini-forest, which
previous finders said had amazing SWAG, and an incredible cache size.I’m typically averse to bushwacking, since I
started caching in the summer, and that always meant poison ivy, bugs,
mosquitos, and more mosquitos.It was
cool here.I had to go through some
thick and tall brush, but at least there were no bugs.I did see a snake, though!It was small and thing but over a foot
long.I’m surprised that I didn’t freak
out… I must’ve been super-focused on finding the cache.I came across two apple trees, too, whose
fruit was on the ground.I ended up
picking up one that just fell from the tree as I was watching, since it was in
pretty good shape despite the fall (unlike the rotten ones on the ground that
had been there for a while), and ended up eating it later – how’s that for a
caching bonus?It’s challenging to cache
without a caching GPS or iPhone network.I had to use the iPhone’s internal GPS, which takes a while to hone in on
your location, but it’s usually workable, after a while.I used my spidey senses and found it!It was in the middle of a mini-forest, so I
was kind of amazed.

When I opened the cache, it had a first aid kit meant to
stay with the cache.I guess with all
the brush that finders had to go through, it would be handy.There was even a bowling ball in that cache –
random!There were lots of happy meal
kids toys, too, which I loved, plus Garmin accessories.Awesome SWAG.I had recently created my own set of “signature items”, which are
handmade products with your caching user Id that you can leave for others to
find and collect.I’ve found various
creative ones from others, and I was inspired to create and leave my own… Mine
happens to be a painted beer bottle cap with a runner stick figure.On my way out, it was more apparent which
direction other finders had come from in the past, although there was still a
good bit of bushwacking needed.Victory!Biggest cache I’ve ever
seen – larger than a carry-on!

Next, I found a whole series of Letterboxes, all with hand-made stamps! Letterbox Jackpot! Usually, Letterboxes are crazy-rare, so to have 4 within a 1KM stretch of road was crazy (I only found 3/4).

After that, I went to a raw vegan restaurant, which had a pizza
and a black forest cake – both were nice.Traffic was crazy getting there, though. By the time I finished with dinner, it was
time to go after the designated Night Cache + Letterbox hybrid.The cache owner had recently maintained the
reflective markers, so I knew that the trail would be in good shape.It was a cool night, on Nov 1st,
the day after Halloween.I was out in the
dark alone, with a headlamp and LED handheld, and my iPhone with the story and
instructions in hand.The instructions
on where to go were blended within a creative story about an owl and following
fireflies.It was a pretty awesome
experience.

Followed the fireflies for
about a mile in the dark wooded trail, and found the cache.The cache was a Letterbox, so it had a cache
stamp that you could stamp into your personal notebook to add to your collection
of Letterbox stamps.I don’t have my own stamp yet, but I drew my stick
figure runner.After that, drove into
the town where I work while in Canada.

I found a couple of caches during the week, one that wasn’t
too hard because I had seen similar ones before, and one creative one that I
accidentally messed up (and am trying to get fixed, with the cache owner).I also failed to find one that I’ve attempted
like 4 times before.I may have one more
trip / chance in the future to try it, but it’s eluded me so far.Supposedly, a tool is necessary.

Wednesday, Nov 4:

I had taken three days off of running.I had just raced a half marathon hard, and I
was typically not in the mood to exercise in the evenings, with standing up all
day while giving training probably factoring in.I did finally get out on Wednesday night,
though, at 10pm, after lots of coaxing of my body.5.0 in 42:00, 8:24 average, 2 degrees of
incline = 8:03 effort.I had gotten a chance
to sit at work on this day, which might’ve helped.

Thursday, Nov 5:

Went out for dinner at a brewery in downtown London with my
trainees.Nice way to celebrate the end
of the week.

Recumbent bike, 60 minutes.Legs weren’t in the mood to run in the morning, or at night.Since there’s no bike in my apartment complex’s
fitness room, I like to take advantage of opportunities to bike, anyway, so it
suited me just fine.

That night, I was still a bit wired (I had been biking from
11pm-midnight, but that’s not too out of the ordinary for me, anyway), and I
was flipping through geocaches in the area, just to see if anything popped out,
and I ran across a newly placed cache!!!Premium members who pay geocaching.com are able to set up alerts, and
they typically race to caches as soon as they’re placed, and as a basic free
member, I figured that I’d never get to go after a FTF unless I got super super
super lucky.Well, today was my lucky
day!I was surprised that nobody had
found it yet.Sometimes, this happens if
the cache is hard, but the difficulty rating wasn’t bad, and the cache
description didn’t mention anything in particular, so hey – this was my
chance!It was 1:30am, but I couldn’t pass
it up.I raced to assemble my caching
kit.Once I stepped out of the hotel,
though, it was raining and chilly.It
had been beautiful all week in London, ON, but the weather had finally
turned.No turning back for me,
though!I had an awesome caching
vehicle with me this week – an Xterra, which is so cool and so me (other than
the large size).I went out, found a
decent place to park, and started into the darkness with my light.The rain was coming down, but I had my heavy
Spartan Trifecta jacket.I found a trail
to follow through the grass.The cache
was at a large pond, close to a subdivision and school.As I walked towards the cache, geese made a
bunch of noise, which startled me a bit until I startled them away.Followed my iPhone’s internal GPS towards the
point.Rocks were slippery, and it was
raining, and the rocky promontory was maybe not the safest place to be caching
at night, but I am careful.There were
slugs in the grass, which was kind of gross.My only hint was that it was a “micro” size.I was hoping that it would be easy, on the
rail, but it was not.First, I saw an
odd trash grabber nestled between two rocks.Sometimes, cache owners place “tools of the trade” at their cache, which
you have to figure out how to use.Next
to it were two live gross, decent-sized slimy-looking frogs.Each time I saw them when my light beam hit
them, I’d jump psychologically (wouldn’t have been safe to jump physically,
given the rocky ledge).I looked
between the rocks.This was a hard
cache, since there were different elevations at which the cache could’ve been
hidden, and it was micro-sized!Tried
pulling at a couple of things.The
coordinates were pointing to a particular spot, which at least on the outside
didn’t seem to have the cache…it was a massive
table-sized sewer pipe, which was especially loud since it was raining that
night and was more active than usual.Could it be?I went down, then
shimmied my upper body over the ledge, to look in it.Bingo!Thankfully, it wasn’t super deep in there.I think it was partially the decoy “tool of
the trade” (I call it decoy because it wasn’t necessary) that made me think to
look in there, since if it was inside, you’d need something like the trash grabber
to get at it.I got it, and found the
gloriously blank log, which I got to sign in the official “first to find / date
/ time” section.Took pictures to
commemorate it.Victory!Wow, couldn’t believe it.So happy.

Friday, flight from Toronto got delayed.I’d stay overnight in Atlanta, which suited
me ok, since I had to be in Atlanta that day, anyway.Ah, the weekend… nice to have this to
de-stress, with all that’s going on.

Had Poutine (the pulled pork variation! - love pulled pork) finally, plus a beer from Vancouver, with the airport's ipad ordering service. Poutine is a Montreal dish made of fries, gravy, and cheese curds, traditionally.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Not an A-race, since my focus is on the California
International Marathon in early December, but this was a good check on fitness,
a distance close enough to the 16er that I was supposed to do that weekend, and
a great hometown half.

Training Lead-up:

Tuesday, Oct 13:

Up in Charlotte for work.Did 5.0 in 40:45, 8:09 average, at 2 degrees = 7:50 effort after a
dinner of Nashville Hot Chicken with awesome garlic and herb tater tots and a
beer flight.The little gym room felt
really hot.My legs were fresh, although
my body was probably using up energy with digesting, because my upper body was
not super energetic.

Wednesday, Oct 14:

Drove back to Greenville.My dad had dropped off his car at the airport, so I was going to pick it
up.Night time was best, since there
would be less traffic to deal with on the shoulder-less roads, and by picking
it up this night, I could save another $4/day of parking fees.I ran 3.5 in 32:09, 9:09 average there, and
that included not stopping my watch while I stopped to let cars go safely by
me.I wore tons of reflectors and lights
all over me.And epic run.Felt mostly uphill.Pushed the pace a bit, since I wanted to
limit my time on the road, and because it was going to be pretty short overall,
anyway.The road was bumpy only in a
couple of parts.The rest of the time,
it was smooth.Cars weren’t too
bad.A 10pm run.The goal for this run, which I recorded in my
paper running log, was to not die by car.

Over the weekend, did some geocaching, and I found my first Letterbox Geocache, which is a cache that contains a stamp that you get to stamp in your notepad.

Also painted a picture (acryllic), based on a photo that I took in Yellowstone, the night of the Supermoon, when we happened to run across some elk.

Sunday, Oct 18:

Long run of 16.3 in 2:34:36, 9:27 ave, at the park.It was late at 11am, so I wore my long sleeve
tech tee mostly for sun protection, although a bit to ward off cold, too.This was after breakfast and snacks.I felt tired beforehand because of a lack of
rest, since my sleep schedule has been off with the naps.The idea was to just go slowly, and listen to
fun podcasts.It ended up being better
than expected, though my legs were pushing it in the last 6 miles, although it
wasn’t a death march.Tempo-y,
maybe.No food or water necessary,
although I did crave apples towards the end.Stretching and foam rolling felt so good afterwards.

Tuesday, Oct 20:

At first, I would’ve considered any run at all a victory,
but my legs started being in the mood for speedwork as I walked to the fitness
room.I ended up with 5.0 of intervals
in 37:19, 7:28 average, at 1 degree of incline.After half a mile or so, the treadmill suddenly stopped after losing
power.My body absorbed the sudden
shock, but that’s not safe!It’s the
second time that particular treadmill has done that to me.I switched treadmills and re-started and
began the distance counter back at 0… I guess at least my legs got a
warm-up.

The workout: 1 mile warmup (on top of whatever I did on the
first treadmill) in 7:58, 3x [0.5 mi in 3:20 (9mph), 0.25 mi in 1:59 (7.5mph)],
0.75 mi recovery in 6:08, then 1 x [0.5 mi in 3:20, 0.25 mi in 1:59], then 0.25
mi in 1:51.

Couldn’t believe the run was so difficult, and that I needed
to take that extra 0.75 mi recovery before doing the fourth rep.I did feel like I had to slap myself awake
during the first mile, because I was so tired.I was oddly thirsty, too, so I drank during the 7.5mph sections.The gym keeps the temps at 72 degrees in the
winter, which is hotter than the 70 degrees that they set in the summer.Boo heat.

My legs were in no mood to run for the next couple of days,
as they needed to recover.

Friday, Oct 23:

55 min strength session.My legs were still not good enough for a run, and I had rather save them
for the next day’s 20 miler, which would be my second out of three, for this
marathon training cycle.

Saturday, Oct 24:

With the half marathon the following weekend, I didn’t want
to do anything crazy and push the pace… just keep it slow and easy.Morning run, after a breakfast of some
lentils and onion stew with fat free cheese, garlic, and black pepper… one of
the few “dishes” that I cook.20.0 in
3:14:20, 9:43 average.Went well.Did about 25 x 0.75 mile laps around the
park… yikes!

The next day, went back out to Charlotte, this time with my
mom, who was visiting.Along the way, we
stopped by a few geocaches…two sections
of the Berlin Wall transported from Germany and erected at a German company’s
campus, a rest stop where I picked up a travel bug, and a giant peach-shaped
water tank.That made it a fun drive
up.

Could’ve maybe exercised that night, but wasn’t really in
the mood after dinner... not even in the mood for biking.I figured that I’d do it Monday morning,
instead.

Monday, Oct 26:

I did make it out to the gym at 6am, although that was an
hour later than originally planned, because my feet weren’t initially in the
mood and were creaky, so I snoozed for a while to see if they would wake
up.The biggest impetus for getting up
and out was that I knew I’d feel sluggish all day at work after eating out and
having popcorn last night, if I didn’t get this in.After a while, I felt good enough to try
biking, but when I got there, I felt ok enough to try running.Putting on my compression socks really
helped, I think.I did have to stop
after 3 miles to re-tie a shoelace, but other than that, 5.0 in 42:23, 8:29
average at 2 degrees of incline = 8:08 effort.Hot in there, but at least I got in the run.I had probably only gotten 4:30 hrs of sleep
last night.

Wednesday, Oct 28:

Last run before the half marathon, so nothing too
crazy.5.0 in 42:26, 8:29 average, 3
degrees of incline = 7:49 effort.During
the first two miles, my tummy still felt full from dinner and was digesting, so
I was forced to keep it slow, which was good for my legs’ sake, anyway.Didn’t feel too hard, other than overcoming
the tummy fullness, since I had kept it wasy.

Visited Charlotte again.

THE RACE:

It’s so nice to have a decently sized HM so close to
home.This was my third time doing it,
so I knew where to park, and where to go.I liked the touch of the trolley ride from the parking lot.It saves a bit of walking, but I also liked
that it kept me warm, and it’s fun – it feels like a big-time race.I had my pre-race supplements, and I nursed a
regular coffee (provided by Spinx at the race) while waiting for the start
time.It was great to be able to use the
Ballpark’s bathrooms, too, instead of porta-potties.They had space heaters out, which was great,
too, although it was warm enough in the inner part of the concourse.When it was 5 minutes till the full
marathon’s start, I checked in my bag (great to have this service) and went out
to watch the marathoners start.I pitied
them, haha, knowing they had 26.2 miles ahead of them, when I only had
13.1.I thought they were crazy.Yet, I’ll be doing the same in a month… it’s
a bit different when a race is just a full vs. a runfest of various
distances.

There wasn’t much lag time before the HM start, which was
nice… a little more than 5 minutes, then we were off.I had a sports bra, compression socks, and
arm sleeves for a good blend of warmth and coolness.My lower legs were numb from cold for the
first couple of miles, though, especially my feet.I couldn’t feel it, but the fact that I
couldn’t control my feet meant that they must’ve been taking a bunch joint
shock with each hard stride.I figured
that it was a big dose of eccentric loading plus joint stress, which I’d feel
later, if not post-race, then later in the race when my feet re-gained
feeling.At around mile 3, I felt my
legs fully, and they had started to get tired.That’s not unusual, so I wasn’t too worried.And I was able to start counting down from
9.X miles left to go.

The course went through random parts of downtown, including
a small bit on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, but much of it was circling around
various roads in Cleveland Park.I
wonder why the course was designed this way… fewer cars to contend with?Cheaper to have fewer road closures?Ease of spectating?Anyway, the impact was that there were two lanes
at certain points, based on whether this was your first or second time through
the park, and you had to get a wristband after completing your first trip
through.The park has hills, so the
course was hilly.It was nice to “earn”
the wristband after the first pass through, though, and that gave me a
boost.I had a half a gel at mile 6, and
the rest at mile 10.Oddly, they had no
Gatorade this year, and even the water stops weren’t as frequent as what I
remember them being in the past.Not a
big issue, since I’ve been able to train myself to go 18.5 miles without food
or water, but it’s odd.

This race was all about running on tired legs.I went by feel, for my pacing strategy, which
meant PR speeds (by 0:05/mi) early on.I
felt like it could be possible.I did
fade a bit in the second half, and ended up getting passed by a few
people.Normally, I’m the one doing the
passing.It was good to practice pushing
on even with tired legs, though, since that’s the feeling I’ll get during the
last 6 miles of the marathon (times two, pain-wise).I kept it up for the most part and didn’t
blow up, so it was ok.

Finished 13.1 in 1:36:46, 7:23 ave, third in my age
group.Probably 0:46 off my PR.Not bad, given the hills and the previous
weekend’s 20er.Perfect weather.Could’ve done better if my feet were warmer,
I suppose, and if I hadn’t roughed up my legs so much in the early miles.Nice, sleek medal, though.Oh, the shirts this year were advertised as
“we’re bringing back the dark blue, with the white panels”, but they failed to
mention that this was only for the mens’ shirts, and that the women were going
to get pink.Maybe I can give it to
someone else who likes pink.The thumb
loops are nice, feature-wise, though.Good
race, as usual.Great post-race
food.Great atmosphere.No real “swag” in the Swag bag.